SUMMARY

Directed a story-based rebrand and digital overhaul for a purpose-driven sustainable development co.

COMPANY

Place, A Sustainable Development Co.

ROLES

  • Brand Strategy
  • Facilitation 
  • Consumer & Market Research
  • Mission, Vision, and Values 
  • Identity and Positioning
  • Copywriter 

Place

The Earth is demanding sustainability, better practices that develop communities without negatively impacting the environment. Place is leading that change with sustainable design, development, and living.

A sustainable development company with a passion for placemaking and talent for differentiated projects.

After five years of establishment and several successful projects, Place took the climate of 2020 as an opportunity to rebrand.

Goals: 1) Rebrand that highlights the team's passion and better targets their ideal customer 2) Overhaul of website and email marketing showcasing the new brand 3) Team building around new company mission, characteristics, and goals

My Impact: Through a series of workshops, I evaluated the company's passion, strengths, market, and ideal customer to create a compelling identity and narrative that both resonated with and motivated customers. Working directly with principal stakeholders, we crafted the team’s mission statement, key characteristics, and market strategy. Following this, I singlehandedly overhauled the digital brand and marketing from copywriting to design and implementation. Lastly, I hosted workshops to onboard the mission with team members and build team unity.

Starting with Why

Concentrating on the Why behind the company, I designed the mission statement to work internally and externally, creating a narrative to guide the same experience for employees and customers.

The mission provided substance to the How and What by breaking each part into actionable meanings. Key characteristics and actions were also developed to guide the team toward goals.

From Research to Narrative

I evaluated the company's passion, strengths, market, and customers through workshops and empathy exercises to determine the Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) and Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

I liked, wished, and wondered charrette meetings, gathering diverse ideas and thought patterns that later facilitated research and narrative ideation.

A market and competitor analysis was also done to create a Blue Ocean strategy canvas, highlighting any market gaps that could be captured and differentiate the brand.

The research highlighted an overlap between the company’s unique way of offering its service and the ICA, a sweet spot where the team’s greatest gifts met the customer’s deepest needs. The Blue Ocean strategy canvas insights were then overlapped onto this sweet spot, further defining areas of emphasis and the USP.

Design Inspired by Nature

The primary color palette and logo were requested to remain the same.

Designing around sustainability, I selected natural colors as a secondary palette for organic toning and softening the original monochromic scheme. These colors were used to inspire imagery and enhance supporting elements.

Writing with Empathy and Authority

Using the StoryBrand framework to further develop the narrative, messaging was focused on showcasing the team’s expertise while understanding the ideal customer’s deep need to make an impact with their investments, a passion the stakeholders also shared — to generate a legacy.

Building Up People and the Mission

After the company brand ideation, I led additional coach meetings with stakeholders to identify and develop their personal brands. Redesigning their professional social accounts, we related their personal brands to the company mission and further established their thought leadership and trustability within the space.

This exercise built up the People, Brand, and Business.

Change that yields results

  • Complete rebrand and digital overhaul

  • Enhanced UX and increased customer engagement from ICA insights

  • Boosted visitors & average page visits per session by 14% and reduced bounce rate by 18% within 1st month

  • Development of stakeholder personal brands

Methods & Principles

  • Start With Why

  • StoryBrand

  • ICA (Ideal Customer Avatar)

  • USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

  • Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas

  • I Like, I Wish, I Wonder

Assets

  • Brand Strategy with Strategy Canvas, Mission Statement and Values, Brand Guidelines, Brand Story and Pitch

  • 100% website redesign, including 12 unique pages and 30+ template pages with unique content

  • Email automations and social media messaging

Next Project

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